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Synchronized pulses generated at 20 eV and 90 eV for attosecond pump–probe experiments

Nature Photonics volume 9, pages 383–387 (2015)Cite this article

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Abstract

The development of attosecond pulses across different photon energies is an essential precursor to performing pump–probe attosecond experiments in complex systems, where the potential of attosecond science1 can be further developed2,3. We report the generation and characterization of synchronized extreme ultraviolet (90 eV) and vacuum ultraviolet (20 eV) pulses, generated simultaneously via high-harmonic generation. The vacuum ultraviolet pulses are well suited for pump–probe experiments that exploit the high photo-ionization cross-sections of many molecules in this spectral region4 as well as the higher photon flux due to the higher conversion efficiency of the high harmonic generation process at these energies5. We temporally characterized all pulses using the attosecond streaking technique6 and the FROG-CRAB retrieval method7. We report 576 ± 16 as pulses at 20 eV and 257 ± 21 as pulses at 90 eV. Our demonstration of synchronized attosecond pulses at different photon energies, which are inherently jitter-free due to the common-path geometry implemented, offers unprecedented possibilities for pump–probe studies.

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Figure 1: Geometry for the production of simultaneous attosecond XUV and VUV pulses.
Figure 2: XUV pulse characterization.
Figure 3: VUV pulse characterization.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported financially by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) through grant (UK)EP/I032517/1, by the European Research Council (ERC) through ASTEX project 290467, and by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft through grant no. LE 2163/6-1. The authors thank N. Powell, A. Gregory and P. Ruthven for technical support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College, London, SW7 2AZ, UK

    D. Fabris, T. Witting, W. A. Okell, D. J. Walke, P. Matia-Hernando, T. R. Barillot, J. P. Marangos & J. W. G. Tisch

  2. Institut für Theoretische Physik and Centre for Quantum Engineering and Space-Time Research, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Appelstraße 2, Hannover, D-30167, Germany

    J. Henkel & M. Lein

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  1. D. Fabris
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Contributions

D.F. and T.W. contributed equally as first authors. D.F. and T.W. performed (with contributions from W.A.O.) the streaking experiments. J.W.G.T. and J.P.M. conceived and designed the experiment. P.M.-H. and D.J.W. performed the absolute photon flux calibration. J.H. and M.L. provided the TDSE calculations and theoretical support. D.F. performed the analysis of the data. D.F., J.W.G.T. and J.P.M. wrote the manuscript with contributions from T.W., T.R.B., J.H. and W.A.O. All authors discussed the results and the analysis of the data.

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Correspondence to J. W. G. Tisch.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Fabris, D., Witting, T., Okell, W. et al. Synchronized pulses generated at 20 eV and 90 eV for attosecond pump–probe experiments. Nature Photon 9, 383–387 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2015.77

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